Memory implants: Chips to fix broken brains

Transplanted memories and mind-controlled wheelchairs are real – now implants are on the horizon that will repair brain damage and maybe even patch dementia

SAM DEADWYLER’s work sounded a little too much like something from The Matrix – and that was a big problem. In the same way that Neo downloads a kung fu master’s skills, Deadwyler had wired up the brain of a rat with electronics that transplanted memories derived from 30 rats into its brain, allowing it to draw on training that it had never personally experienced. The study had the potential to be a landmark finding – but “everyone thought it was science fiction”, he says. “I thought, ‘no one’s going to believe this unless I do a hundred control experiments’.”

So he did just that. Last December – 10 years after the original experiment – the paper was published at last. Instant kung fu is still the stuff of Hollywood blockbusters, but this research could nevertheless have a huge impact on many people living with brain damage. Ultimately, the same kind of neural implants that allowed memories to be “donated” from many rats into another individual could restore lost brain function after an accident, a stroke or Alzheimer’s disease.

For a lot of people with memory loss, damaged parts of the brain are failing to pass information from one area to another. If you could create electronics that interpret the signals from one area, circumvent the damaged parts, and write them into the second area, you could help people regain the ability to form new memories, or even gain access to precious old ones. ...

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